
Mary 0. Smith 



















Autobiography of a Tree 



















* 






































. 

; 












■ 

' 











. , 

































































































































































- 





























The 

Autobiography of a Tree 



By 

MARY O. SMITH 

% % 


B. J. BRIMMER COMPANY 
Boston, Massachusetts 







re>V45l5 

Ss? 


Copyright 1923 
B. J. BRIMMER COMPANY 
Boston, Mass. 


Transferred from 
Copyright Offi e 

Juki fl’tf'- 

* •> ,l 


Printed in United States of America 
Press of Goodman Brothers, Incorporated 
Boston, Mass. 


NOV 24*23 



In Loving Remembrance 
of My 

Beloved Husband, 
Samuel Bradley Smith. 


He “lived the life ” I am still striving 
to know. 




















% 










. . . “ Natural things 

And spiritual; who separates those two 
In art, in morals, or the social drift, 

Tears up the bond of nature and brings death. 
Paints futile pictures, writes unreal verse, 
Leads vulgar days, deals ignorantly with men, 
Is wrong, in short, at all points.” 

“ Aurora Leigh ” 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 













' 


. 






. 
















































































THE 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 

BY 

MARY 0. SMITH 


. . In the midst of the street of it and 
on either side of the river , was there the 
Tree of Life . . . . 

And the leaves of the tree were for the 
healing of the nations ” 

Revelations y xxii, 11. 


URING what seemed to be my first awak¬ 
ening was a sense of power; a force within 
me that was a part of and yet not I; a 
something that urged me to push up and 
out into what, I did not know.. Whatever 
its nature it moved me and I began my upward 
way. 

The dark earth above and around me gave room 
to it. 

The insect life I encountered made way for me. 

9 






AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Obstacles I could not move I went around. 

Then came a time when that within which I could 
not then name shook the roots of my being into 
active conscious life. That something within which 
I have since learned to know as God, and through 
this present awareness to recognize its power as 
love — the rhythm of all vibratory action. As this 
newly-awakened thought impressed itself upon me, 
I became aware of a coming nearness of something 
vast, unknown and yet awaiting me. I resisted the 
push within, fearful of what might be beyond. But 
the powerful inherent force that I felt had always 
been with me kept up the onward move and assured 
me, how I do not know, that just above me, outside 
the crust that seemingly held me as a prisoner, I 
should find a wonderful, dazzling glory. A some¬ 
thing, the opposite from this close and stifling dark¬ 
ness, that had, so far as I know, been the limit of 
my desires. 

But at this stage of my upward journey new emo¬ 
tions were awakening. I felt that back of my desires 
were motives as well as a will to do. 

This something within, a part of and yet not I, 
impressed me with its reality. I learned that every 
effort I put forth was encouraged and assisted by 
this Intelligence which was greater than my own. 
I learned to move in harmony with it, that my will, 


10 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


my individual power might be governed by this 
Greater Will. For to the extent I recognized and 
co-operated with it, to that extent I gained assur¬ 
ance, strength of purpose, courage and volition. 

The day came when I burst forth and looked 
upon a new heaven and a new earth. 

Behind, and buried beneath the earth’s crust, was 
that part of my physical instrument which I felt 
but could not see. For my roots were hidden. But 
that of me which had been seeking was out in this 
new world of vibrating color which I since have 
learned to know as light. How long I had been 
hidden from it I did not know. Nor do I now. 

As a separate thing, yet one with all, did I breathe 
and sense my being. Close beside me were others 
which I felt were of my kind — tall, majestic and 
strong. Their branches spread out thick and far. 
Beautiful, tiny bits which I have learned since to 
know as leaves, waved by the breezes. Fine in tex¬ 
ture and color, they moved to and fro as if played 
upon by some hand, some presence unknown to me. 
A great longing came upon me to reach heights, 
beauty and grandeur like these. 

As I looked wonderingly upon all this mystery 
of form and beauty, a soft, golden light grew and 
enveloped everything in its gorgeous rays. The ex¬ 
panse above me began to glow with new wonders. 

11 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Soon a sense of warmth filled me. I turned toward 
this new, unknown influence to behold for the first 
time the glories of the dawn. As the great orb of 
light rose higher and higher above me, I felt a 
greater impulse to rise, reach up into the vast un¬ 
known distance that embraced yet lured me on. 
Though my vision of earth’s sights at that time was 
limited, yet the heavens and their marvelous beau¬ 
ties were ever open to my gaze. For this I thanked 
the Great Something I felt pulsing within and 
around me. 

As I grew in understanding, I learned that all 
sustaining strength came from this Great Source, 
be it above, outside, or within me. 

As I continued in my physical growth, my outer 
viewpoint changed. New and more wonderful 
things came within my sight. It was a happy day 
for me when I had lifted myself to a height where 
I could see the brook that had been singing to me 
ever since my advent into this ever new abiding 
place of beauty. Such songs as it sang! I learned 
its every note. I knew, as if in no other way, by its 
soft and tender harmonies, that Nature’s elements 
were, to all outward appearances, sleeping. For 
when awake, stirred by strong winds and down¬ 
pours of rain, the brook responded by its rapid 
movements as of many waters. Where did it come 


12 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


from and whence was it going? What was its mis¬ 
sion in this universe of activity and change? It 
had its use, of this I was sure. But what, I did 
not know. 

As I grew stronger, the birds came and made 
their homes under my sheltering leaves. How their 
home life thrilled and touched me! Filled me with 
a knowledge of a life higher than mine. Filled me 
with a broader, keener, more comprehensive under¬ 
standing of that which I learned to know as God. 
That Great, Inherent Animating Principle that was, 
through my willingness to accept, mine to co-oper¬ 
ate with — thereby molding and bringing me into 
the true understanding of my spiritual being. I 
sensed that this Great Presence was larger than I, 
yet it seemed to be the Motive Power within, and 
a part of this individual animating something I 
called myself. Just how that could consistently be 
I did not then know, nor do I now. But I felt it 
ever within and around me. I sensed that without 
it the real Me would not be. Because of this I at¬ 
tuned my voice to mingle with all the voices of the 
forest. With the breezes that played about me and 
the more refined, unseen forces that I felt but could 
not see,—in songs of thanksgiving and love to the 
Great Architect of my being. 

As the seasons came and went, I felt that each 


13 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


made manifest to me, through my experiences, the 
ever-increasing knowledge of the unity of all. 

The beauty and wonder of Me, the bud and the 
blossom, were ever new. 

Always did I feel companioned. I could not see 
the presence, yet my whole being seemed responsive 
to another of my kind, and needful for my develop¬ 
ment. 

Nothing obstructed my outward growth, my 
symmetry. I prided myself on my beauty of form, 
until one never-to-be-forgotten day when every 
Tree became heavily laden with ice and snow, and 
one of my branches bent beneath its burden. Days 
went by, but the sun’s rays did not reach and re¬ 
lieve me until at last, when the ice turned into 
water, I thought its dripping to be my own tears 
of self-pity; for I found my twisted limb still bent 
and out of shape. How I tried to bring it back into 
its old line of beauty! But I could not. Later I was 
glad of that which I — for lack of understanding — 
called ugly. 


14 


One day when Spring’s awakening began to stir 
within me and all living things showed evidence 
of God’s love in the outward renewal of life, His 
presence within made known to me the approach 
of a new, a higher rating of intelligence before un¬ 
known to me. I felt its coming. 

It was nearing the close of a beautiful day. 
Other growing things near me must have also 
sensed it, for everything within my view seemed to 
take on an air of expectancy; a holding of one’s 
breath, as it were, for some new arrival in our midst. 
My whole being seemed to quiver with an unknown 
delight. Many of my buds, which were nearly 
opened, broke forth into tiny leaves to wave a wel¬ 
come. I bent myself to listen and see what this 
new and vibrant aspect of life nearing me was like. 

Upright on two feet and arms encircling each 
other, came two radiant beings. Instinctively, or, 
I might say, by a spiritual perception, I knew them 
to be of a much higher degree and quality of being 
than I, or the animal life around me. That they 
were nearer a completed demonstration of indi- 

15 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


vidual life as the results of a more advanced, intel¬ 
ligent co-operation with the Great Constructive 
Principle of all life made manifest in the different 
forms and expression of Love. Love so glorified in 
these two made one by it that I bowed my head in 
prayer and praise to the Great Source of all life. 

I have looked squarely into the face of the sun 
in its noontime passing without a faltering in my 
gaze. I have rejoiced in its light. I have felt its 
warmth and sensed my great need of all it had to 
give. I have been made to realize that life, as we 
know it here on this so-called physical plane, would 
cease to be active, ever expressing without its pres¬ 
ence. When its mission by day is finished and I 
have watched it sink below my gaze, I have won¬ 
dered upon the wonder of it all! The warmth and 
light of the sun by day and the beauty and light of 
the moon at night. The twinkling little bits of 
golden lights that peeped to me from the vast vault 
of deep blue above, or beneath clouds of silver, were 
my comrades by night. All of these glowed with 
wondrous beauty and light. But they paled before 
the radiance of the upturned faces of the two beings 
who were now so near. They shone with a light 
that I have since learned is not “ seen on land or 
sea.” These beings were lighted by that something 
which I, too, have felt, but until now never fully 


16 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


understood. It was Love. Love that is God. Love 
the Great Universal Intelligence. Love manifested 
in His children, made in His likeness and image, 
through their willing endeavor to reflect Him. 

The fairer and slighter of the two — the man’s 
mate — came and touched me. Touched me with 
hands as delicate and white as the blossoms that 
fell from the hawthorn bush beside me. 

“ Dear, come here,” I sensed her saying. “ Is 
this not a beautiful tree? A willow, dear, just like 
those near my old home so far away. How do you 
suppose it came to be growing here among all these 
other trees, so unlike it? Do you think we could 
take it up very, very carefully and set it near our 
home? ” 

“ Certainly, Beloved,” he answered in tones that 
were deeper yet filled with sweetness. “ I am sure 
it would live. This little brook that is singing its 
way onward to the sea is the very same that runs 
through the end of our garden.” 

“ How beautiful! ” she exclaimed. “ They will 
still be near friends. I am glad of that. I would 
not care to separate them. Oh, Love!” she cried, 
“ how wonderfully good God and His many bless¬ 
ings are! I have so wanted a willow tree just like 
this. See what shape and size these branches will 
become as the tree develops. This variety or species 


17 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


are real house-builders. The one at my home was 
a playhouse all through my childhood days. The 
broad seats in its branches were my resting places. 
I would weave patterns of beauty with its slender 
pointed leaves and make chains of its tasseled blos¬ 
soms. Many a sweet dream of what the future 
might bring to me was woven into them. And 
always in those dreams was the willow and its 
whispering songs of love; and now here it is a 
reality. A real, living willow for us to enjoy and 
make a part of our very lives.” 

Putting her sweet face onto the smooth greenish 
brown of my body, she took me into her heart and 
life forever. I felt that with this — her very anoint¬ 
ment of love — I had in truth become one with 
them. Even my poor twisted limb was admired 
and petted, and with her arms around me she as¬ 
sured me that they would come again soon and 
take me home. 

As they turned to leave me the sun sank out of 
my sight on this, the most remarkable day of my 
life. The loving contact of these two beings had 
opened a channel of thought of deeper import than 
ever before. It brought to me a clearer and broader 
understanding of that at-one-ment of all life that I 
had come to know in all its phases around and 
above me. I was shown how my willingness to heed 


18 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


the call that came to me and urged me up and out 
of the dark earth into this world of varied beauty 
and peopled with beings of higher degree and quali¬ 
ties of intelligence far beyond my comprehension, 
had worked for my good. It did not cease then, 
even in my lesser consciousness, for in my aware¬ 
ness of this, which they called a tree, was a sense 
of ever upward movement, greater understanding 
into what, and for what I did not at that time know. 

I discovered that growing things around me grew 
and blossomed and disappeared. Why this coming 
and why this going I could not determine. I 
watched the birds in their nesting time. I haye done 
my part to shield the little ones from storm and 
wind. I have watched them during their many 
stages of growth. I have seen them grow strong and 
fly away. But I have also known some that did not 
go. Some peeped their tiny lives away for want of 
care. Why was this? And for what? These and 
many more questions I would ask, but got no reply. 
I would hide their little half-grown bodies with my 
leaves, yet feeling within myself that their unsung 
songs were yet living and gaining in melody just 
beyond my sense of earthly hearing — that some¬ 
time, somewhere, they would welcome me. Such as 
these and many other manifestations or changes 
about me led me not only to hope, to believe, to 


19 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


have faith, but also intuitively to feel that all was 
life. That “ There is no death! There are no 
dead.” That this Great Impulse within me, this 
upward and outward push from within had always 
been and always would be. I found, as time went 
on, that it was my first great duty, my compensa¬ 
tion to this Guiding, Governing Principle, to work 
with it. To come so into harmony with it as to 
better understand the established facts of life about 
me. Only in this way could I determine such 
truths as make one free. That to bring my earthly 
life into harmony with the spiritual, I must make 
right use of the life as it now manifests itself in 
me. Use my own resources to bless others; and 
through right giving, receive righteousness, and 
thereby maintain my established harmonic relation 
with the Source through which I came. 

As revealed by my light of truth, all this was a 
foreshadowing of a great truth. That all life de¬ 
pended upon Giving and Receiving. When I re¬ 
alized this for the first time, that I, just a tree, was 
receiving constantly, not only today but every mo¬ 
ment, I felt a sense of obligation, never before 
brought to me. Not until then had my knowledge 
been sufficient to reveal that the “ very foundations 
at the root of all truth is God— Consciousness.” 
From that time on I was conscious, up to my degree 


20 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


and quality of understanding, that I was a constant 
receiver of many blessings necessary for my ad¬ 
vancement. That it was up to me to use well my 
gifts that I might in this right way gradually unfold 
and so sense with a clearer vision the Great Source 
of my being, and to give thanks, not only with 
bowed head and songs of praise, but influenced by 
the right motives and desires. Give! Give! Give! 


21 


It was in this spirit that I faced the ordeal of my 
removal. I must admit there were moments of real 
fear. Fear and dread of this taking up of the very 
roots of my being. But I recalled that first tiny 
impulse to push up and out into the light of day. 
Had I not then glimpsed this great pulsing from 
within me and worked with it; if I had not been at 
that time a willing giver as well as a willing receiver, 
I never should have found the earth’s crust and 
broken through into this larger and more radiant 
phase of life. Should I hold back now when greater 
vistas were about to open for me? No! I would 
willingly do my part. I would loosen my hold on 
the dear mother earth that helped to nourish me. 
I would not faint in my well-doing. I would co¬ 
operate with all the strength of my nature with this 
Greater Intelligence in whom I felt I lived, moved 
and had my being. 

In this attitude of thought I prepared myself for 
the change about to come. It was not an easy task 
— this readjustment I was anticipating. But I had 
a feeling that sometime, far back of my present, I 


22 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


had failed at just such a turn in my affairs. If so, 
I would not again be a self-inflicted victim — one 
who failed to hear the voice and have the vision. 
And because of this, and more recent experiences 
in my development, I fought as never before to keep 
my being poised and my intuitions awake to effects 
as well as causes. 

The morning that proved to be the day of my 
removal opened with a gentle downpour of rain. 
I received it as a baptismal blessing. I sensed a 
need of this cleansing and sustaining water. I did 
not at that time know that it was this event that 
was necessary for my safe uptaking. Later in the 
day, at the time when the sun was about to leave 
and only its shadows lingered, I heard again the 
sweet voice of my lady. He, her mate, had called 
her by a name I felt sure was his alone to use. As 
they approached, I saw another of their kind with 
them. He carried in his hand what I have since 
learned to know as a spade. Even then I recognized 
it as the means of my uprooting. 

As they drew near, the man clasped my trunk 
with both hands and shook me as if to determine 
my hold on the mass of material that covered my 
roots from sight. He turned to my lady and said: 
“ It is wonderful that a tree of this size seems to 
have so slight a hold on the earth. It responds to 

23 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


my effort exactly as one does whose roots have been 
partly released from the ground that holds them.” 

If they could have understood me I would have 
told them that that was just what had occurred. 
For had I not, through my co-operation with the 
Principle of all growth and development, prepared 
the way for my own uptaking? 

More and more at every stage of my own devel¬ 
opment did I sense an established harmonic relation 
between all there is, and that from which all came. 
That to become, to be some thing, was not to seek 
for or expect to find it in no thing. I did not then 
know, nor do I now, just what the essence or the 
real was out of which I became this, that is called 
a tree. But I have always realized a pulsing, vi¬ 
brant, living force. Something that always must 
have been in the past, because it is now of the pres¬ 
ent and I judged always would be. At this point in 
my reminiscing my lady turned to her mate and 
said: “Dearest, this coming out of the dark tomb 
of the earth is the tree’s resurrection.” 

Loving her as I did, I was sorry I was not able 
to make her understand that all moments of my 
life were those of forthcoming. A reaching out and 
up and into newer experiences, even additional 
heights of understanding. That the real of me never 


24 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


sleeps. That every moment was a new awakening. 
That life could not be buried. But ever active, ever 
vibrant Life. That earth could not hide, nor fire 
burn, nor water quench it. That the Great Animat¬ 
ing Principle is always ready to act harmoniously 
in my kingdom of vegetation and the one beneath 
me and naturally the two above. But I had yet to 
learn that those who represent the highest kingdom 
in this material universe — like my lady and others 
of her kind — had free choice. 

I sensed that all life and intelligence must be 
spiritual. Though I could not see it, I faintly re¬ 
alized that when, through right personal effort, all 
forms of life reached that state or condition wherein 
they perceived they were in reality spiritual and not 
physical, they would then know that as such they 
always had been and always would be enduring, 
eternal, and everlasting life. 

That all stages of individual spiritual unfoldment 
depended upon co-operation with the Great Uni¬ 
versal Mind. I learned that in the kingdom of the 
human family such are endowed with independent, 
self-conscious and rational volition wherewith to 
make free choice through free will. I learned that 
these can, if they so desire, “ know every established 
relation which the facts of nature sustain to each 
other ” and to the seekers after Truth. 


25 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


In each of the four kingdoms it is individual work 
based upon individual consciousness — the founda¬ 
tion of all knowledge working in harmony with God 
Consciousness. Only in this right way can each 
and all recognize, up to their degree and quality of 
understanding, “ That it is the Spirit that quicken- 
eth.” I learned that here on this material plane 
every phase of life is represented in its own natural 
kingdom. Therefore, in their own way, it is the 
duty and privilege of all to “ ask and ye shall re¬ 
ceive.” “ Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” 
“Seek and ye shall find.” Do and ye shall become. 
Become what? Truth, the verity of all things. Truth 
that opens the door to Wisdom. Enduring Truth 
that is revealed through right seeking. Truth that 
determines the earned increment, through personal 
effort of every seeker for Wisdom. Truth such as 
this world would reveal through Asking, Receiving 
and Giving in “ the spirit of love ” — the Great 
Principle through which we must work if we would 
reach the highest expression of Divine love each in 
his place is capable of obtaining. 

Later on it was given me to know that it was an 
obligation, a duty, of everything — whatever king¬ 
dom it is working in — to make the best of its 
opportunities through its demonstration here, the 
results of which determine the way to the more 


26 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


radiant Light of Truth. I believed it then, and I 
do now, that when sentient beings make the change 
through the Great Law of Attraction, into “ the 
home (their place) not made by hands, eternal in 
the heaven,” the earthly door in the school of ex¬ 
pression is closed forever. Many will not accept 
such statement as “ leaves of healing.” 


By this time my lady’s mate and the man had 
lifted me from my abiding place. I gazed into the 
opening that had once held and supported me. But 
there I found no answer to my many questions. I 
saw no tangible thing that could help me to better 
understand that unseeing, unceasing push within 
me. Very gently they carried me forth. 

With my many branches I touched my old com¬ 
rades a loving goodby. I knew I was leaving them 
never to return. Just what I might have left be¬ 
hind to spring up in the place where I once stood I 
did not know. All that was to me unknown. I felt 
grateful for the past. I was willing to leave it and 
move onward into the future, fitted, I was sure, with 
sufficient lessons necessary to the advancement I 
would find among those of a higher kingdom than 
the one in which I was placed, to do my work in 
revealing the true God-created universe. 


27 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


After binding together my many roots and the 
damp earth that clung to them, they placed me in a 
machine that moved by a strength I knew nothing 
about. Yet I wondered if it was a part of that 
something that throbbed in me; that which pushed 
me on ? I knew it was some tremendous force, for 
we moved onward with such great speed that the 
forest, with its myriad dear familiar sights and 
sounds, was left behind. My head rested upon the 
lap of my lady. Her dear presence stilled the fear¬ 
ful beating of my heart and helped me to forget my 
lowly position. I felt sure my head again would 
rear itself upward and my branches resume their 
natural lines. 

It was such a strange journey, this of mine to 
my new home. I looked with wonder and amaze¬ 
ment at the new sights appearing to me from all 
sides. In the woods from which I came I had seen 
little four-footed creatures seemingly just attending 
to their own desires and wants. I loved them and 
I am sure they loved me. But here were huge ani¬ 
mals constantly being forced to pull along heavy 
burdens. I did not like these sights. They seemed 
out of tune with the freedom of the life I had known. 
Over our heads flew a big, dark object. It went 
through the air like some winged bird. But it sang 
no song that lulled and brought me happiness like 


28 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


those of the birds of the forest. It gave forth sounds 
that caused unrest in every fibre of my being. I 
ceased to open my sense of sight or sound. And 
drawing my branches closer about me I settled 
back, soothed with the old assurance that all was 
well. 

Not long after this we came to a stop. I heard 
a few spoken words, and then I was lifted up and 
out to the ground. My roots were unloosed and 
placed within an opening ready to receive them. 
How good the dear earth felt to me as it was care¬ 
fully placed around my roots. How good it was to 
again take an upward stand. To feel myself again 
reaching up and out into something that seemed to 
be waiting for and expecting me. By whatever 
name this seeming emptiness might in reality be, 
it took me into its arms and I became another ob¬ 
ject by which man might determine distance in this 
seeming void of unlimited space. 

It was my lady who said: “ Turn it a little more 
this way, please. I want this branch next the 
house.” 

She had her hand upon my twisted limb. The 
limb I had been unable to bring into shape. The 
limb, as I thought, spoiled my beauty. 

Very carefully the man did as she requested, and 
as the soil advanced higher up on my trunk he 


29 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


pressed it firmly down. “ There,” he said. “ By 
tomorrow that tree won’t know it has ever been 
moved.” 

This statement amused me. There was much I 
could have told them. But their ears were deaf to 
my calls. Deaf to the desires and knowledge I so 
much wished to convey to them. This puzzled me 
much. For I knew they could see and feel me. I 
knew they understood certain facts about me. But 
when I tried to convey the knowledge I possessed 
to them they were uncommunicative, unresponsive. 
I, a tree, so very much below them in understand¬ 
ing, yet sensed every word they uttered, but how, 
I did not know. I caught the meaning of the sounds 
as I did the songs of the birds and the playing of the 
breezes among my branches and leaves. They came, 
so it seemed to me, by different rates of vibrations. 
Each tone rated with its own meaning. I recalled 
that terrible night of tragedy when the trees of the 
forest broke and fell around me. Long before its 
force hurled itself upon me I felt that some un¬ 
known calamity was near. I caught the sounds of 
disaster by the feel of the winds upon me. Fiercer 
and fiercer they beat me. A sense of great peril 
filled me with fear. I felt as though I must hold 
taut every thread of my being — that only in this 
way could I withstand the ferocity of their power. 


30 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


But I soon learned that was not the way to meet 
them. 

I learned I must co-operate, come into harmony 
with their moods or break under their much strong¬ 
er grasp. So I let myself go. I became a willing 
partner in the big game (or play) the elements were 
manifesting. I turned and twisted and bent and 
bowed to their seeming sovereign law. By so doing 
my limbs remained unbroken. 

This experience taught me the great lesson of 
tactfulness. That the willingness to do is the im¬ 
portant factor in the law of adjustment — that of 
becoming. 

After the fury of the storm was over, I realized 
as never before the necessity for controlling and 
adapting my own physical forces to those of others 
if I would better understand the great existing spir¬ 
itual laws in and about me. Whence came all these 
events, and for what? I had at that time but a slight 
awakening. 

After years of effort and experience the vastness 
of that which is known as God, Love, Life, Truth, 
Universal Intelligence, Constructive Principle of 
nature, the Great Architect of being, and many 
other names remained still but faintly understood. I 
sensed an abiding love, and the activity of all being. 
I was learning that if I, in time, came to know the 
whole truth embodied in this First Great Cause I 


31 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


ghould be free from all darkness, all ignorance. That 
only through my own right efforts, my own right 
experiences, would the light of truth increase my 
ever-unfolding spiritual understanding. 

In the stillness and beauty of these awakened 
thoughts the new strange sounds and even the pres¬ 
ence of my lady were apparently lost to my con¬ 
sciousness. * 

The shaking of my body brought me back to my 
outer surroundings. “ There/’ continued the man, 
“ it is as solid as I can make it. You can’t hurt or 
kill a willow. A branch put into the ground at any 
time or any angle is sure to sprout.” 

I was glad to hear his assurance of this fact to 
my lady. He was possessed of the ability to trans¬ 
fer his knowledge, which I could not do. But I felt 
sure that in time, by close companionship with her, 
she would learn to better understand me and my 
language. 

The man who had, as he called it, “ planted me,” 
left, leaving me alone with the two. 

“ My Love,” said my lady, turning to her mate, 
“ I wonder if you realize just how happy the coming 
of this tree has made me. It is like the arrival of 
some dear one whose absence has caused me pain. 
Always from a child I have loved trees. Flowers are 
beautiful, and I love them, but not as I do the trees. 
They seem to possess such a deep, hidden meaning 


32 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


in every stage of their upward climb. Do they seem 
that way to you ? ” 

“ No, Dear,” he answered. “ I fear I have just 
accepted them, never thinking of their inner life, 
its meaning and the part they fill in rounding out 
the Plan and Purpose of all life as demonstrated 
by them through their co-operation with the Great 
Giver of all gifts — His many and various gifts that 
make lives so rich and full.” 

“ I am afraid, Dear,” he continued, “ I have given 
more thought to the so-called creative power of 
man, and have overlooked many of the established 
facts of nature.’ 

“And so failed to always determine the truth?” 
she softly questioned. 

“ Yes, until I found you, Darling.” 

They turned and left me. Left me to dwell upon 
the meaning of what they said. 


33 


Like an illumination of light where before had 
been darkness, I knew this something within, this 
upward push of my very being, was this Great Giver 
of all gifts. I knew that God was the Creative 
Power of all forms of life. I knew, or felt I did, 
what the man had yet to learn. That neither he, 
nor I, nor anything, could create. That he and I 
and all were just demonstrators of the Great Law. 
That the spiritual substance out of which men 
shaped their thoughts, desires and the forms they 
visioned, were all in the beginning. That if we 
would grow into greater knowledge, greater beauty, 
and greater use, we must recognize and so know 
this truth, through our co-operation with this one 
Creator and His eternal laws; and so learn that in 
principle they are constructive, never failing in 
compensatory justice. Never ending, never dying, 
but God-created life. Life in the beginning and 
Life forever. 

I learned that I was as essential in my place in 
the kingdom of vegetation as the stone in its min¬ 
eral kingdom beneath, or the animal above in its 


34 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


own kind; and that of man in his kingdom of self- 
consciousness of God, self and other selves. 

What a light of truth all this revealed to me. For 
the first time I realized there was no limit, up to my 
degree and quality of understanding, of what I could 
achieve, providing I retained, through my own right 
motives, desires and acts, my established place in 
God’s created universe. That because of this Great 
Creative Source, of which I was a part, I was in 
reality enduring, eternal, and everlasting. 

This great fact humbled all self pride and all 
self pity. This truth alone proved to be the open 
door into a clearer, broader outlook toward more 
knowledge. It proved to be the open door to wis¬ 
dom. All this gave me courage to face the condi¬ 
tions near and about me. Yet sounds new to my 
sense of hearing poured their weight of inharmony 
upon me. I tried to shrink from them, but I could 
not. How different from the various sounds of the 
forest. These lacked serenity, that peace found in 
the music of the trees and the soft and homey calls 
of the drowsy birds. I believe every note sounded 
on the key-board of nature is heard in the heart of 
the woods. I called it the great organ of the uni¬ 
verse. At times the blowing of the winds among 
and upon the tree’s branches must, I thought, be 
like the beating of many waters on the face of some 
mighty rock. But such as these did not sicken me 

35 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


like the sounds which now filled me with dismay. 
These hurt me as nothing else ever did. A feeling- 
new and almost overpowering came upon me. I 
asked myself: “How could I evade them? How 
could I escape them? ” And then, in answer to my 
call, the truth that I determined for myself during 
that terrible tragedy of the winds, came as a bene¬ 
diction to my troubled being. For it came to re¬ 
mind me that what I had done I could do again. 
That I must accept these conditions. I must adjust 
myself to them. I must prove my spiritual strength 
by my unresistance to the physical. That I was 
responsible for every truth I had made my own. 
That in very truth I could not relinquish one truth 
in my search for others. For through my own ef¬ 
forts, my own experiences, each had become a part 
of my very being. This assurance gave me my first 
great incentive, a goal to work for and toward. Its 
meaning I was aware of even then, but I did not 
name it until years hence. 

Just then the whole world within my view sprang 
into light. The space outside our low wall was one 
vast expanse of brilliancy. I knew the light of the 
sun, the moon, and the stars. But this was new to 
me. What power pushed it up and out into the 
world of night, I asked? But no answer came. Yet 
through and within my inmost being was the con¬ 
stant throbbing of life. The gift of the Great Giver 


36 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


of life’s gifts, by and through which all answers 
came. Yes, they never failed to come when in the 
right attitude of spirit I asked, sought and knocked 
at the only door that opened into the Light of Truth. 
The door of Wisdom. The door of spiritual ex¬ 
perience that opens “ Into the City not built by 
hands, eternal in the heavens,” “ Wherein a pure 
river of the water of life, clear as a crystal, proceed¬ 
ing out of the throne of God and the Lamb. In the 
midst of the street of it and on either side of the 
river was there the tree of life. . . . And the leaves 
of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” 

“ Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom, and the 
man who getteth understanding. For the fruit of 
the righteous is a tree of life.” 

Am not I, a tree on this side of the river of life, 
gaining, through right efforts, such truths as will 
enable me, when I have thrown aside this physical 
instrument, to obtain greater and still greater 
truths into the light of Wisdom — the reality of all 
life? And again the eternal, renewing life-throb 
within the heart of me answered, Yes. “ Behold, 
I make all things new.” And “ He that overcometh 
shall inherit all things.” “ To him that overcometh 
will I give to eat of the tree of life.” 

This assurance filled me with a sense that sur¬ 
passed even the rest that was found in the midst of 


37 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


the woods. A peace that overcame and shut out the 
lights and sounds here in this abode of men. 

I had eyes to see, but I saw not. Ears to hear, 
but I heard not. For finer and more acute spiritual 
senses dominated my whole being, and I found 
that these were mine to better understand. Mine 
to use. Could I do this? Of that I was not at that 
time sure. Yet they seemed to belong to that part 
of me that always had been and always would be. 
That something within which never makes any 
mistakes filled me with this knowledge. Never be¬ 
fore had Absolute Justice so impressed me with its 
verity as now. Never once through my different 
experiences, which alone determine one’s growth 
and unfoldment, had Justice ceased to manifest, 
how and in what form I alone was responsible. I 
could have spent this, my first night here in my new 
home, in a destructive manner, but if so, again, 
Justice would have meted out to me my earned in¬ 
crement, the like of which would have obscured the 
glory of the morning. Through humility, the door 
to wisdom, I found the rest that comes through 
peace, and with it the physical strength that I 
needed for my readjustment. I threw all the force 
of my being into the roots of me. I spread them out 
and down and up. I made them clasp the earth 
that lay about them; made them take hold of the 
things present. I wanted to feel that I was truly 


38 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 

“ planted.” I seemed to sense as never before that 
I had an important work to do here on this side of 
the river of life. That the demonstrations must 
be made by me through the body, my physical in¬ 
strument which was likened unto a tree. Made that 
I might learn that the leaves of the tree are for the 
healing of the nations. Had not I to do , in order 
to become like the Great Giver? And was not I, 
up to my degree and quality of intelligence, respon¬ 
sible that my mission be fulfilled? And did not all 
this depend upon my willing co-operation with the 
Great Source from whence I came if I would receive, 
and give such spiritual and compensatory values as 
would flow from Absolute Justice? From Eternal 
Justice, which never sleepeth, never ceases to act? 

By this time the light of morning had dimmed 
the light of the night, and I had again gotten myself 
well poised. I sensed that in time I should feel my 
physical body as one with the earth beneath me as 
I was before I unloosed my roots from it for my 
uptaking. 

With this assurance I shook out my branches, 
lifted up the real of me to meet and mingle with the 
all-enduring that lay out, within, around and about 
me. 

In the woods, where I came to know many kinds 
of moving, living things, I found they all had an 


39 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


abiding place. So far as I could discern, the great¬ 
est interests in their various lives seemed to be cen¬ 
tered in the making of these. I rejoiced to find that 
my kind with their branches and trunks were the 
foundation on which birds and squirrels built. I 
was glad of this. It made me sense my worthiness 
to fill the needs of others. 

On the ground beneath me tiny little insects were 
ever engaged in tasks of their own. I thought much 
upon their building. They were such tiny, active 
bits of life. I wondered if they ever ceased from 
their labor. If their intelligence ever rested. So far 
as I could see, it never did. If any among them 
grew weary and dropped by the wayside, some com¬ 
panion removed and cared for it. 

All this revealed to me that the life of man was 
like these, only something just a little higher up in 
the great scale of life in which all had their place 
and their part to retain. In what attitude we did 
this determined our harmony, our spiritual unfold- 
ment or our discords. 

I remembered that my lady said: “Turn the limb 
toward the house.” It was into this house they 
entered after leaving me the first night in my new 
surroundings. This, then, was their abiding place. 
Their home, as I learned later to know it. Very 
carefully I looked it over. Every part of it became 
dear to me. I knew as I grew older and taller I 


40 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


should come closer to it, be able to see the life 
within it, and by this close contact better under¬ 
stand how to fulfill my obligation of giving. 

Just then a beautiful bird came and lit among 
my leaves. Such a beautiful song as it gave forth. 
It thrilled me through and through. Every glorious 
note was an expression of the happiness centered in 
that delicate body of beauty. I wondered if con¬ 
sciously or unconsciously it was repaying, through 
its song, the Great Giver who endowed it. Soon the 
song ceased, and then the sweet call of love rang 
out. I was sure its mate was near. More calls and 
then, faint at first, but clearer as she drew near, 
came the answering note now mingling with its own. 
Oh, the beauty and the wonder of it all! I felt with¬ 
in myself an active, powerful, vibratory law, a sense 
of attracting forces. I knew that sometime, some¬ 
where, I, too, must know my mate. The one note 
responsive to the one within me. Even as limited 
as my experience had been, I had learned that com¬ 
pletion of self could not be reached alone. That 
sometime, somewhere, each entity would find its 
own God-created mate. There were times when 
illumination of such truths as these almost over¬ 
powered me. I was learning that “ all things work 
together for good to those who love Harmony.” 
Past and present experiences were proving to me 
that my spiritual unfoldment was not of a day. 


41 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


That the coming of the night of this physical exist¬ 
ence did not end a work that, so far as I could 
understand, was without beginning and without 
end. 

As the light of morning advanced, greater activi¬ 
ties began outside our wall. The glimpses I caught 
of the streets in the distance became alive with 
moving beings. Black objects that sped with such 
force, propelled by what I did not know, were also 
rushing along humans. I wondered what for? 
There seemed to be no order, no harmony. What 
could be the object of it all? What their goal? 
In the forests the needs of all life around me, so 
far as I could see, were all provided for. But 
here it all seemed different. Could these beings be 
devoid of that something within them that I, only 
a tree, recognized, harmonized and co-operated 
with? If so, their lives must be empty and unglad¬ 
dened by lack of recognition of the real life. Did 
they trust the ever-present, enveloping Love, who 
clad the lilies with beauty and marked the sparrow 
as it fell? To be sure, the little creatures of the 
woods worked for their sustenance. But they 
seemed happy at their tasks. Joyous in their work 
and attuned to the many blessings around them. 
But how about men? I was not able to answer. 

One thing about these abodes of humans that 
puzzled me was those ugly projections that came 


42 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


up through the roofs of their homes. I have learned 
since to know them as chimneys. I marvelled at 
them and their use. At times something like a 
cloud seemed to pour out of them. I learned later 
that it was smoke. But little did I think that some¬ 
time this material body of mine would also float up 
and out of the home of my lady. Knowing then as 
little as I did of the great Plan and Purpose of all 
Life, it was well this fact was hidden from me. 

The days and nights slipped by, every one of 
which held some new wonder, some new joy. New 
and strange flowers opened their hidden beauties to 
my sight. I found in them every color that I had 
learned to love in the glorious sunsets of the sky as 
they were revealed to me during my life in the midst 
of the woods. Even here in the rush and roar of 
human life the Great Artist still brushed the heav¬ 
ens with beauty of color no man could equal. And 
yet, men either rushed or plodded by with heads 
down, eyes bent upon the dirt at their feet, and fail¬ 
ing to see the glories above them. I tried to shout 
to them to look up, but they did not heed me. 

To me my lady and her mate seemed different 
from the masses that daily passed their home. As 
the days grew longer and warmer, the two spent 
much time in the garden among their flowers and 
trees. They seemed to note every twig that I put 
forth and talked about my length of limb, the 


43 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


thickness of my trunk, and the size of my various 
branches. They planned how in another year they 
could have seats in the midst of me. 

It was such a joyous, happy summer. The home 
open to the breezes, the songs of birds and the music 
of my leaves. Inside our garden wall there vibrated 
a love that surpassed any and all I had ever known. 
It seemed to fill and refill everything within it with 
perfect harmony. I recognized what seemed to be 
vitality in all things. Even the stray leaves of the 
previous year held an appearance of life. Their forms 
remained, and I could see the fine and delicate veins 
through which the life sap of the trees had poured. 
I sensed, and could follow through past experience 
of my own, every stage of their physical unfoldment 
up to the time when they fell away from the 
branches from which they grew. But from lack or 
need of experience, I did not as yet know how they 
came to be here in this material form. Are they a 
pattern of an already established spiritual body , 
the real of which I am a counterpart? Or do all 
physical entities evolve from the lowest kingdom 
of nature up and into the highest which I have 
learned is that of the human and as such represent 
the three kingdoms beneath them? 

I hope this latter is not one of the established 
facts of nature. I do not want to believe that the 
human kingdom will alone be represented, no mat- 


44 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


ter to what heights of spiritual intelligence or glory 
it might attain. According to my light of Truth, the 
four great kingdoms — the mineral, vegetable, ani¬ 
mal, and human — do exist in the enduring, eternal 
and everlasting world of spirituality in the order 
and individuality by which I know them here, or 
they would not be here. What would a so-called 
heaven be without these various gifts the Creator 
of all has given? If each is enjoyed and needed 
here in this physical existence, how much more shall 
all be enriched by them when unfettered by material 
inharmonies and clothed in the real we shall then 
know them as they are? 

All these questions and many more I could not 
then answer. Yet within me I felt the assurance 
that the answer would come sometime, somewhere. 
That if I would evolve into greater understanding 
of enduring truths, I must control my physical 
forces that I might, through my spiritual, conform 
my intelligence with that of the Great Universal 
Intelligence. FOR EVOLUTION IS INDIVID¬ 
UAL INTELLIGENCE WORKING IN THE 
RIGHT WAY. 

I learned that if I did my best as a tree I was 
assuming and fulfilling my responsibilities, and 
therefore Absolute Justice would check off my com¬ 
pensatory score. But if I failed, for lack of humil¬ 
ity, to acknowledge the life-giving warmth of the 


45 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


sun; if I failed to absorb, take into my being, the 
rain as it fell upon me or sank beneath the ground 
that my roots might drink; if I failed to find and 
make use of the nourishment from the mother earth 
from whence I made my physical appearances into 
this realm of larger possibilities, that was needed 
for my growth and strength, this failure would not 
retard Justice, absolute and unfailing, in giving me 
my earned increment according to their values. 

You humans who walk the earth on two feet are 
not the only accountables in this existence of ever- 
increasing spiritual activity as expressed through 
physical needs. “ Only by pride cometh contention; 
but with the well advised is wisdom.” 

If any fail to retain their established harmonic 
relation with God or the Constructive Principle of 
nature, they become a discordant note in the Great 
Plan and Purpose of the universe. However great, 
however small, each must play his score aright. 
If I, a tree in my kingdom of vegetation, have 
proved this as an established fact of nature, how 
much more should man as a human soul, with his 
inherent attributes, the primary, fundamental and 
essential elements of character — “ Self-conscious¬ 
ness, independent choice, reason, independent self- 
consciousness and rational volition ” and a vehicle 
ready to respond to his will, fitted to determine, if 


46 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


he so desires, the Truth of all things? Thereby on 
and on unto Wisdom. 

It seemed to me that within man, if not in all 
forms of life, there were no established barriers be¬ 
tween him and God. For there is no time or space 
unless self-erected. That spiritual unfoldment de¬ 
pended only on acknowledgment of and co-opera¬ 
tion with the one Great Giver of all gifts, the one 
Source of all Life. That if all did this, the gifts 
that were from the beginning, are now, and always 
will be, would reveal themselves in kind and man¬ 
ner for the greatest good of all. 

Of the rushing mass of humanity that passes 
under the cooling, sheltering branches of trees, how 
few ever give us thanks for the beauty and comfort 
we give. I doubt if many among them all ever give 
us credit for our willing co-operation with the Great 
Law of our being. That in so doing we might better 
help all life, though visioned, forth to physical sense 
alone. As yet I do not know all the uses man has 
made of us. I better know the gifts we yield to him 
under the law of Compensatory Justice. 

Even a tree cannot receive and not give. Natu¬ 
rally, in turn, we pay our debts. Some in fruits, 
some in blossoms, some in nuts, some in gum, others 
in fuel, shade, shelter, lumber, sugar, rubber, dye¬ 
stuffs and turpentine. But above all these, we are 


47 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 

another object by which love may be called forth. 
I learned to know this later on, because of my lady. 

Up to that time this proved to be the most spir¬ 
itually illuminating night in my short life. And as 
the night, so the day. Soon I began to sense an 
awakening within the home of my lady. It was 
not long before she came out to me. She looked me 
over carefully. Listened to the beating of my heart. 
Tenderly examined my buds and my few opened 
leaves. And then, calling to her mate, she said: 
“ Dear, the tree is as fresh as before we took it up. 
It is just animated with life. ,> 

How I tried to tell her of the wonder of the night. 
How I endeavored to tell her that during those 
hours when most of the world seemed buried, lost 
to the great truths that were so near, yet hidden 
from them, that I, a tree, a part of all Life, had 
touched the outer rim of the whole and was slowly 
but carefully, through my own demonstration, 
reaching the center, the essence of all Life. 

More and more I was recognizing a great, eternal 
law. That to know it I must work with it. That 
to do this I must know myself as a part of it. That 
I must not dissipate even my physical forces, but 
use them constructively for my own unfoldment, 
and so for the good of all Life. This I endeavored 
to do as the days flew past. Such glorious days! 
Everyone of which I would like to write about. 


48 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


My lady would bring her work and sit beneath 
my branches. I began to take notice of the things 
her love was fashioning. Little garments, fine and 
soft and beautiful. Every touch was one of love. 
One day she whispered to me the meaning of these 
dainty things. And, touching my twisted limb, she 
said: “Here it is we shall swing the cradle, and 
you, my tree, shall rock my baby to sleep.” 

“ God bless you,” I whispered back. “ I will 
sway it so gently and from my strength nourish it 
and protect it with every fibre of my body. The 
birds shall sing to it their sweetest songs, and I will 
shield it from the hot rays of the sun and the cold 
winds from the north. I will offer up my prayers 
for the blessings most needed for its unfoldment 
into such truths as are enduring, eternal, and ever¬ 
lasting.” 

So this was the use my twisted limb was to 
fulfill. And I, in my ignorance, had called it ugly. 
Now I viewed it with thanksgiving. Thankful that 
it was a part of me. 

Nearer and nearer my lady and I grew into bet¬ 
ter understanding of each other. She greets me in 
the morning, and from her window near which I 
stand, and toward which I am growing, she bids 
me good-night. She tells me that when the snow 
is on the ground to be patient, it will not be long 
before I shall again be dressed in blossoms and 


49 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


leaves of living green. She places her sweet face 
upon me and whispers, “ I love you.” How it 
thrills me! I bend my branches down and embrace 
her with the warmth and glory of the best within 
me. I touch her with my pointed leaves and let 
them gently sweep across the curtains that cover 
her eyes like the blue of the arch above. 

In moments such as these the real of me burst 
all material bonds and I see whereas before I was 
blind. Hear, where before I was deaf. I learn that 
through touch all my senses open and respond as 
the petals of a bud to the touch of the sun’s rays. 

It was in ways like these that the days went by. 


50 


The time came when my leaves began to fall to 
the ground. The nights grew colder. Every morn¬ 
ing revealed to me the death of some cherished 
blossom of the garden. It hurt me to see them 
blacken, and I so helpless to shield them. Most of 
the birds had flown away. The doors and windows 
to the dear home were closed to the cold without. 

With all my strength I had directed my branches 
toward the windows and had succeeded at times, 
when the winds moved me, in sweeping the glass 
that shut her from my touch. I was so thankful 
even for that contact. She never failed to greet me, 
and the morning after the first snow she exclaimed 
upon the whiteness of my beauty. 

Again Spring came. Again I felt a new rush of 
life. A new push up and out. My lady said my 
tasselled blossoms and new leaves were more beau¬ 
tiful than ever. She wondered to what heights I 
would grow, and what size I would attain. 

As the days grew warmer, she spent her hours 
near me. What wonderful days those were! Her 


51 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


hands had ceased their work. She rested and read 
and thought. There were times when her thoughts 
so illumined her face that I suspended every quiver 
of my being for fear that I might break the perfect 
harmony of herself, her soul. 

Then came a day when I did not see her. People 
came and went. Her mate did not leave the home. 
I could see him as he moved from room to room. 
There seemed to be a hush, a silence I could not 
understand, and yet beneath it an expectancy, a 
something looked for. 

Then the remembrance of the night of tragedy in 
the woods came back to me. As then, I did not 
know if I was to fear or rejoice. I, too, seemed to 
be waiting — and for what? 

Just then a faint cry came to me through the 
open window which my branch and twigs so per¬ 
sistently had reached. “ A son,” I heard someone 
say. Later her mate came and reached out and 
touched me. I heard him as he thanked God for 
this new and wonderful blessing. But his ears were 
deaf to my cry. No one heeded my longing; my 
constant calling for her. 

The time of waiting seemed long before I caught 
a glimpse of her. She came straight toward me. 
She, too, reached out and touched me. Brought a 
tiny branch close to her sweet face and kissed it. 


52 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Then she told me something of the wonder and 
beauty of the motherhood that now was hers, and 
of the days she was looking forward to spend with 
me. She and the child. It was then my harp of 
many strings played melodies of joy. Joy in the 
joy of the dear ones here in this home of love and 
peace. 

One day the white-capped nurse brought the 
little one to the window. Oh, how tiny and frail! 
Would I ever dare to take it into my sheltering 
arms? Could I control the strength of my limb, 
remembering always the precious life within that 
tiny frame? Yes, I could do all this, and much 
more. Had I not watched and helped my own 
growth, my own unfolding? And did I not realize 
that within that little body, hidden from me, and 
even the loved blue eyes of the mother, was that 
same, great, protective, governing, animating 
Principle? That something that had forced me to 
move in harmony with it up and through the dark, 
damp earth into this greater expression of its Love? 

Continually I asked: Why all these different ex¬ 
pressions of life and His great Love? I did not 
fully know. But I knew it was for something; that 
each had its place; that nothing could be misplaced. 
That in all, and through all, was an intelligence, 
both Universal and individual. That each of its 


53 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


kind was in its way working out its destiny. I had 
learned that the tree was of a higher grade of un¬ 
derstanding than the rock beneath it. That the 
animal kingdom exhibited more freedom, more in¬ 
telligence, than I. And that man was, or should 
be, conscious of God, of self, and other selves. And 
now it was to be even my privilege, my joy, to 
watch the unfolding of this human soul here in this 
tiny body. Could I be a help? Yes. Could I teach 
it truths? Yes. And through such giving receive 
what? Greater truths through my willing service 
of love. Did it pay to know this ? Yes. Just how 
much more I had to endure, live through, and suffer 
to still know — no one could tell me. Only my own 
experiences could teach me. Absolute Justice would 
determine my account. < 

As the days grew longer and warmer my lady and 
the little one spent many hours under my shade. 
Her chair, table, and books were there. I was so 
close to the home that the life within it became my 
world. Every added inch to length of limb revealed 
new aspects of the life within. I had learned much 
about home life from the family life of the birds. 
I marvelled at the wonderful something that took 
place within the tiny eggs hidden from the sight of 
all eyes, even those of the mother bird whose work 
seemed to be that of guarding and keeping them 


54 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


warm. But with all my efforts to fathom the un¬ 
seen forces, I had to wait until the time came when 
the living entity, forced by the power of its own 
growth, through the love of the Architect of all life, 
picked its own shell, and the breathing, living bird 
came forth. Here again was manifested, through 
experience, individual effort, an established fact of 
nature. 

I tried to solve this wonderful phenomenon by 
close analysis of it and myself. I knew that within 
that tiny shell “were eyes, but nothing to see; ears, 
but nothing to hear; lungs, but nothing to breathe.” 
Songs yet unsung; wings yet unfolded. In thought 
I travelled back to that tiny bit of me hidden be¬ 
neath the dark earth. How I, too, was compelled 
by that unknown something within to find the crust 
of the shell that was confining me to seeming dark¬ 
ness. Impelled to burst my own bonds and break 
forth into a world of greater possibilities, greater 
results, and .greater freedom. I was at that time 
such a tiny object, so slight a thing might crush me. 
I marvelled at the power that kept me erect. Why 
should I point upward? Was it because of virtue 
of a higher law in defiance of a lower? Blossoms 
fell from the bushes near me. And nuts from the 
trees. What was the attraction? What held each 
in place? 


55 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Then I looked at myself as I now was — tall, big, 
strong, and vibrant. Of my bud, blossom, and leaf. 
The silent, continuous movement of movement. 
The physical effect that follows Cause. And then, 
faintly, I began to perceive that these outward 
demonstrations of me were but half truths. That 
the real of me was hidden from my outer sight. 
That only as I looked within and recognized the ever 
silent, working force, this law of Continuity, this 
one Great Law of Attraction wherein all is natu¬ 
ral and nothing unnatural, where Love is the ruling 
power and evolution, intelligence, working in the 
right way, was the same, yet manifesting through 
higher rating of vibratory activity. That only as I 
worked with, and so recognized the truth, could I 
hope to find the spiritual, the real, enduring, eternal 
model of which I, the growing physical tree, was 
a counterpart. 

I was learning that spiritual principles do govern 
physical manifestation. Therefore I assume I am 
a spiritual entity. And that it is upon this spiritual 
model I am built. If this is true of me, it is also 
true of everything organic and inorganic. Every¬ 
thing, then exists as a double entity. Everything 
has a spiritual basis. Everything exists in spirit. 
“ That every natural flower which grows on earth, 
implies a flower upon the spiritual side.” If all 
this is an established fact of nature, I am allowed 


56 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


to go on in my process of growth, I questioned, 
would the time come when I will have outgrown and 
so be able to throw off my physical shell, show forth 
the real on which I am fashioned? I could not 
answer this. Yet I felt that sometime, somewhere, 
somehow, I should, through my efforts, my experi¬ 
ences, know it as one of the truths that make us 
all free. 


57 


It was a happy day for me when the little ham¬ 
mock swung for the first time from my bent limb 
holding in its embrace the tiny life so dear to us all. 

Every day I found new and wonderful ways to 
shield and comfort it. If a bit of sunlight seemed 
too bright, I would protect the baby eyes with my 
garment of green. If the wind blew too roughly, I 
would bring my branches closer about it. As the 
little one grew stronger, I would play hide-and-seek 
with it, its little hands trying to catch my leaves or 
the shadow that fell upon'them. 

One beautiful day when the world within our 
garden wall was alive with love, my lady and her 
mate stood one on each side of the swinging cradle 
looking down at their sleeping son. My lady raised 
her eyes to those of her mate and said: “ Listen, 
the willow is whispering such beautiful words. Do 
you hear them, Dear?” Bending her head as if her 
very soul caught this message, she repeated these 
lines: 


Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Here in our love he lies, 

Fringed are the blue-veined curtains 

58 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


That shadow his deep blue eyes. 

In this life a soul new born — 

Ours to love through night and morn. 
Eyes so dear and tender, 

God Divine the sender, 

Ours the care to render, 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Earth’s temple holds a soul 
Through God to ever live 
As ages eternal roll. 

Here for an earthly duty — 

Led by Light, Truth and Beauty, 
Soul fed for its growing 
From Truth ever flowing — 

Is ours for such knowing. * 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Love casteth out all fear. 

Strong is the heavenly band 
That guardeth his mortal ear. 

In eternal laws there’s rest, 

Our Father knowest best. 

Ear to catch His favor 
Through our Lord and Saviour. 

Ours the earthly treasure. 

Baby'sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

His hands, so tender yet strong, 

May they in loving service 
Uplift life’s struggling throng. 

Know within all power lie, 

Life forever, not one can die! 

Hands to express God’s freedom 
Here in his own kingdom 
All through love and wisdom. 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

Here in the earthly fold. 

His lips have yet to utter 
The story so often told. 

In his soul are thoughts unsaid, 

Pure from Heaven’s fountain fed, 

Lips to praise God ever, 

None from Him can sever; 

Both as one forever. 

Baby sleeps! Baby sleeps! 

The hand of the father clasped that of the mother. 
As they stood there, a feather from the robin’s nest 
above fell upon the two hands. As they lifted their 
gaze upward, the bright eyes of the mother-bird, 
looking over the nest that held her feathered flock, 
flashed a recognition of the ever-eternal truth of 
Love made manifest to/her through her little ones 
and the constant vigilance and protective love of 
her bird mate. I shook my branches in harmony 
with this drama of life. My lady understood my 
outpourings of joy, for I heard her say: “ And its 
leaves are for the healing of the nations.” 

How fast the Summer days flew past! Filled as 
they were with the ever-present experiences of the 
life about me and that of these three made one 
through the harmony of God knowledge. Bits of 
verse that my lady would read aloud gave me much 
knowledge by which to obtain truths. I learned to 
value and better appreciate the spiritual knowledge 
that flowed from the minds of the poets she loved. 


60 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


These helped to give me a clearer vision of the re¬ 
ality of all things. A deeper understanding of the 
unity between the two kingdoms, the spiritual and 
the physical. The day came when my Light of 
Truth partially revealed to me: 

“ And verily many thinkers of their age, 

Aye, many Christian teachers, half in heaven, 

Are wrong in just my sense, who understood 
Our natural world too insulary, as if 
No spiritual counterpart completed it. 

Consummating its meaning, rounding all to justice and 
perfection, line by line, 

Form by form, nothing single nor alone, 

The great below clenched by the great above.” 

Thank God for such as you, I whispered, as I 
gently touched my lady with my leaves. Through 
the grace of God you have been as a lamp unto my 
feet. Before, I saw as through a glass darkly, but 
now face to face, line by line, form by form, nothing 
single nor alone. “ The great below clenched by 
the great above.” 

Now, as never before, I realized that completion 
of self, even that of a tree, could not be reached 
“ single nor alone.” That, if not here, then 
“ clenched by the great above,” I should, sometime, 
come face to face with my own mate. And this 
through God’s love, the harmony within me, I 
should obtain self-completion. Also, through my 


61 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


compliance to duty, an obligation placed upon me 
by Him, I would evolve up to the highest expression 
in the kingdom of which I am a member. To what 
further end and use I did not know. 

I had to learn there were qualities within my¬ 
self that I had not met and uncovered. Depths that 
had not been sounded. Experiences that had not 
revealed them. Once when the little one had been 
ill for a few days I sensed an anxiety never felt 
before. I did not know its meaning. I could not 
find its cause. One day my lady read aloud from 
a book that was always her constant companion: 
“ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death I will fear no evil.” I could un¬ 
derstand how death might be likened unto a shadow, 
but only as a shadow, for it takes the Light of Truth 
to produce the earthly reflection. But what was the 
meaning of: “I will fear no evil” ? What was evil ? 
If it was something not good, from whence did it 
come? Who or what was the discordant note? 
From out of harmony, how could discord come? 
These and many other problems I was trying to 
adjust to my understanding when my attention was 
directed to confusion and pain in the street just 
outside our wall. 

In an instant my whole body seemed a thing 
aside from myself. The very real of me seemed 
changed. Instantly I felt an uprising of some 


62 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


demon within me. The love, beauty and harmony 
that I had, up to this time, expressed through was 
thrust aside, and I feared myself, my strength, and 
my power. I reached out with all the force of my 
being to strike with my many branches the man 
who was using his strength upon the poor horse 
that lay within his power. Could I have reached 
him, my limbs would have hurled and crushed him 
to the earth. I beat my branches upon the window 
and my calls for my lady were answered. No fear 
in her for the wrath of man. Her condemnation 
made him cover his eyes for shame of the manhood 
he had lost. She pointed out to him the cause why 
the poor beast was not equal to his burden. She 
picked up one of the horse’s hoofs and there, caught 
in the shoe, was a stone that prevented his progress. 

Ashamed and humbled, the man threw his stick 
aside, and thank the powers that be, he forgot him¬ 
self and remembered the horse. The horse forgot 
his wrongs, and remembered only the man. He put 
his soft nose against the rough face of the human 
who had unmercifully flogged him. For a moment 
the love within the heart of both glowed forth with 
the radiance of the God within. I believe an under¬ 
standing was then established between them that 
never will be overlooked. My lady hid a sob in her 
voice and the tears in her eyes as she touched and 
spoke to me on her way to the house. But the 


63 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


awakening of anger within me made me tremble in 
all my limbs. I felt that every one of my twigs and 
leaves were wilted. I had experienced such a fright¬ 
ful change! I had learned for the first time the 
meaning of hate and the fire that burneth. The 
songs of the birds were hushed. Even the light of 
the sun was hidden. I prayed that never again 
should I behold a demonstration of the wrong side 
of the duality of human motives and desires. 

The Summer and Autumn were gone, and again 
my limbs became naked and my heart filled with 
loneliness. The life within the house seemed shut 
away. The daily contacts were gone. The outside 
home life under my branches had moved within and 
I seemed shut without. But my interest never 
ceased in the dear home life made visible to me 
through the many windows which I now had 
reached. The growth of the little fellow filled me 
with wonder. The time came when he drew himself 
up to his full height and waved his tiny hand in 
welcome to me. Then came the event of his first 
step. How glad I was that the father was there to 
witness it. That it took place at the going to bed 
time of the little one. Never will I forget the dear 
home picture reflected by the happiness on the faces 
of the three. 

The Winter wore away and soon the beautiful 
May days brought out the home life to me more 


64 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


and more. Toward the close of one particular day, 
the very atmosphere seemed filled with expectation. 
My lady and the little one expressed great excite¬ 
ment. New things began to happen under my 
branches. A small, round table was brought out 
decorated with beautiful flowers. Later on a cake 
with one small candle was placed in its center. The 
high-chair tied with pink ribbons brought a shout 
of joy from the baby. My lady caught him close 
to her heart, and I heard her say: “ I thank Thee, 
God, for the blessing this one little year of his life 
has meant to us.” 


How can I record what followed? How did I 
live knowing the anguish of the soul so close to me, 
yet unable to help her? I realized as never before 
my seemingly limited faculty to help, comfort and 
love her then when she needed me most in the time 
of her sudden widowhood. I tried to focus that 
throbbing, vibrant God - power outside, above, 
around, and within, and yet greater than I, upon 
her and her needs. I called upon all the different 
manifestations of life around me to aid and 
strengthen her. To me all was animate. Even the 
stones in their kingdom below me were filled with 
life up to their degree and quality of intelligence. 
I had learned our dependence upon the one Great 
Source of the life of all. For “As the branch cannot 


65 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no 
more can ye except ye abide in Me” 

The world of humans seems to fail in their praise 
of the ministry of the world of all three kingdoms 
beneath them. Nature never ceases in her offer¬ 
ings. In secret our greatest gifts are given. Oh, 
how I prayed for strength to bestow upon her, my 
lady, “the peace that passeth all understanding.” 

Past the baby chair trimmed with the ribbon of 
pink, the cake bearing the tiny emblem of the one 
year of baby life, kind friends carried the body of 
the father and her mate. Three days the house was 
stilled. Puring that last hour, before they brought 
him forth, I caught these words: “ In My Father’s 
house are many mansions; if it were not so I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 
if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, 
and receive you unto myself, that where I am there 
ye may be also.” How the words, “ I go to prepare a 
place for you,” filled and strengthened me. 

As they bore his body out and under my branches 
I dropped my “ leaves of healing ” upon my lady, 
and thanked the Father of us all for my Light of 
Truth, my understanding of Him. 

Such a void of happiness as prevailed in our gar¬ 
den through all those Summer days. Even the baby 
voice held a shadow of pain. My lady tried to find 
her all in the life of the little one. But I knew that 


66 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


could not be. The child was of her, yet a thing 
apart. But her mate was one with her. Had been 
and always would be the one half that made the 
completion of the one. How she strove in spirit to 
retain and hold onto that truth. How she prayed 
for strength to live the life that the vision might not 
be clouded, that the real might not be hidden. 

My lady’s spiritual insight was glimpsing all this, 
for she at times looked beyond and saw that “ He 
whose correspondence was with this world alone 
was only a thousandth part, a fraction, the mere 
rim and shade of an environment, and only the 
fraction of a life.” I tried to tell her that all we 
see with our physical vision is such a tiny part of^ 
the great whole found in God’s eternal plan and 
purpose. But ours to know when we, in humility, 
are willing to walk hand in hand with Him through 
the open door of wisdom, and know, through per¬ 
sonal effort, “ There is no death. There are no 
dead.” Many ask what is death? One writer has 
said: “ Death is one of the outstanding things in 
Nature which has an acknowledged spiritual 
equivalent.” 

You ask me, Dear, with lifted eyes, 

Now filled with wonder and surprise, 

To tell you what Death’s meaning is, 

And when I answer, “What is life?” 

You lightly laugh and turn away; 

Then, sadder grown, come back and say: 

“ My Love, I do not know. 

67 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


From my experience I have had evidence that 
birth, or so-called life, and death, the so-called op¬ 
posite, are one and the same. But by whatever 
name the Animating Principle may be called, it 
surely is Universal and individual intelligence. 
Universal Intelligence never ceases to act. 

But what part of the circle of life individual in¬ 
telligence first operated on, if there was a first, I 
do not know. But wherever or whatever its degree 
and quality of understanding may be, impelled by 
a Greater Intelligence than its own it steadily ad¬ 
vances if the moral law, the established harmonic 
.relation which it bears to God, or Universal Intel¬ 
ligence, is sustained. 

If so, there comes a time when such efforts sha¬ 
dow forth the exact goal each is striving to attain. 
“ There is a spiritual body and there is a terrestrial 
body.” A time comes when the soul outgrows for¬ 
ever the physical instrument that houses it. 

And there are times, temporarily, when the ego 
can leave the material body and travel forth in that 
of its ethereal. 

Even I have earned the right to say that the in¬ 
dividual, governing, animating principle, when sus¬ 
tained by Absolute Justice, or God, is master of 
either instrument through which it desires to ex¬ 
press. I, through my right motives and desires for 
those truths that are eternal, enduring and ever- 


68 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


lasting, have been able by their light to rise above 
these physical bonds. At such times I, in spirit, 
go to my lady. And now when her grief has burned 
me under the consciousness of her present saddened 
condition, I try to make her realize the love and 
hope I am trying to express. 

I tell her that my leaves, my lights of Truth, are 
for “ the healing of the nations.” I whisper to her 
that the constant, ever-present power of the love of 
her mate is here. That he is nearer to her than 
when clothed by the physical. 

That aside from God’s love, he, your Beloved, is 
your greatest gift. That a real gift, once personally 
earned, can never be taken away . For, in very 
truth, it is an abiding part of both the giver and 
the receiver. 

My lady looked at me and yet saw me not. She, 
herself, her soul through her finer spiritual percep¬ 
tions, saw only her own. Thus it is that through 
the inter-penetration of the great universality we 
come to better understand the heart-throb of all 
life through our right efforts to know the one 
Creator. 

As the days came and went, the healing presence 
of Divine Love, through “ her living of the life,” 
built up her spirit, and I saw it shine forth through 
the thin mask of flesh brighter and stronger as she 
evolved through her experiences. I felt sure the 


69 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 

life of earth would be brief for her. That the cul¬ 
mination of her efforts would be as a never-ending 
ray of light. The light of Truth, which alone, dur¬ 
ing her transition, would protect her against all 
darkness, all fear. That her pathway would so 
shine unto her dear one that his radiance mingling 
with hers would reveal such love as would continue 
in its unfolding “ unto the perfect day.” 

As time went on, the little one spent much time 
among my branches. I was his play-house. The 
birds were his baby friends. His mother his almost 
constant companion. His Teddy Bear the baby of 
his love.v As the Summer advanced, the seats 
among my branches became more and more his 
home. He and Teddy ate there. Hidden by my 
many leaves, they had their daily naps curled in 
the safe embrace of my many limbs. 

Again Winter came and went. Again the birth¬ 
day of the little one dawned. I wondered if two 
lighted candles would glow in place of the one un¬ 
lighted a year ago. Could this day be met in the 
spirit of thanksgiving? Did she still keep the vision 
open? The pathway clear that reached from them 
to him? Did she sense the ever-present life of his 
soul made one with hers ? These questions I asked 
myself as the sun cleared the mists of the night 
away. 


70 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


As the day advanced, my lady followed the little 
one out to me. She went with him into the very 
midst of my branches, took the dear baby form close 
to her heart, and told him the story of his short 
baby life. How, through God’s mercy, the presence 
of her little one had blessed and sustained her, made 
her strong through her loving service to him. How 
she would continue to ask that she might be given 
strength to fulfill her obligations. The little one 
looked at her as though the soul of him saw far be¬ 
yond the confines of his baby form. For a moment 
I, in spirit, came so close to these two that we three, 
mingling our inherent forces, made us one. Every 
string in my harp of many strings played in perfect 
harmony, and I sensed as never before the coming 
unity of spirit through the near dissolution or 
change of that which was purely physical. I felt 
impressed that the time was near when we three 
should show forth as we in reality were, and not as 
we seemed. 

I heard her say: “ Little son, you shall have your 
birthday party. You and Teddy and mother will 
bring out the little table here under the willow, and 
we will trim it with flowers, and in the center of it 
we will put your birthday cake with two little pink 
candles for you to light.” How my lady strove to 
forget the sad moments of the past in the gladness 
of the day. How she later on thanked God for her 


71 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


willing trust and faith in His ever-present goodness. 

As time went on, by ways and means unknown 
to me, I sensed a new anxiety that was creeping into 
her life. A something that has come since her mate 
went. Were their needs all met? I could not tell. 


V 


72 


Again we were called upon to meet another sad 
event in these never-ceaseless, active experiences of 
life as we know them here. During the latter part 
of the beautiful October days the little one began 
to show signs of great weariness. 

One day, with Teddy tucked under his arm, he 
slowly climbed up and onto one of my seats. I 
heard him say: “I’se so tired, Teddy, I can’t hold 
you. And you’s tired, too. You go to sleep, now, 
Teddy, dear.” And reaching over, he put his be¬ 
loved Teddy into a deep hollow in my bent limb. 
I am sure my lady did not know of this resting- 
place. The baby kissed and petted Teddy and 
seemed to be bidding it a drowsy good-by as his 
dear baby head fell forward on my limb that had 
so often held and lulled him to sleep. 

When my lady called he did not answer. When 
she reached him the beautiful eyes remained closed, 
and his breathing seemed painful. Oh, the stillness 
of the days that followed! Once only I heard his 
voice when he murmured: “ Mama, Teddy is tired, 
too. Teddy is in his own little bed, asleep. Will 
he tome to me? ” 


73 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


Not long after this, beautiful white flowers that 
gently swayed by the breeze swept the door from 
which they hung. I cannot write of this. My heart 
is too full of the misery of my lady. I could only 
drop my leaves of healing upon them as they passed 
beneath me. When she came back I felt that both 
her dear ones, though unseen by her, walked by her 
side and held her for a moment beneath my healing 
leaves. I cannot write of the Winter, Spring and 
Summer that followed. 

One night, when the air was bitter with the north 
winds, my lady came out through the loneliness 
and darkness to me. She clasped her arms about 
me and, laying her beloved face down upon me, 
sobbed out her anguish, grief and loneliness of soul. 
She told me that I, too, must be taken from her. 
That she must sell the land on which I stood, that 
she might keep her home. 

She told me how weak she was. How her body 
failed to respond to her will to do. Could she en¬ 
dure to live and see me cut down, knowing that 
before another night had come I would be lying 
with limbs severed from my body, a mass of broken 
parts on the ground that nourished me and from 
whence, so far as I knew, I came? “ Can I,” she 
cried, “ live on alone? ” Everything she loved best 
taken from her? What a night that was! I closed 
my protective branches about her and softly, as a 


74 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


mother whispers to her tired child, I told her how I, 
a tree, heard and held in my memory my first note 
of awakening. How I learned that I was a member 
of the great symphony of life. That my part well 
played was even essential to the whole. That the 
ear attuned, through truth, would perceive my 
slightest discord. That it was my duty, an obliga¬ 
tion placed upon me by the Great Source of all Life, 
to keep in harmony with it. That my spiritual 
growth, my unfoldment, depended upon how and 
in what attitude of spirit I met and lived the ex¬ 
periences that constitute the exact knowledge of 
every entity in whichever kingdom of nature they 
manifest through. I tried to tell her that insofar 
as this co-operation with God was sustained, to that 
extent one’s Light of Truth, understanding of God, 
increased. I told her not to grieve at my going; to 
remember my uptaking and my replanting here. 
How at that time my very being was held for 
a moment in the bondage of fear. Fear of what 
the future held for me. But only for a moment, for 
by the light of past experiences I again trusted that 
Great Power I recognized and obeyed. And what 
was the result? Had it profited me? Yes. For 
through these experiences I knew that I must “ keep 
on going on.” That these “ flowing conditions ” 
were necessary that God’s Plan and Purpose be ful¬ 
filled. That all in time would, I felt sure, be for 


75 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


the good of all. That her dear ones were not dead, 
but, I felt sure, more alive than when here. 

My lady left me, more peaceful than when she 
came. 

I hope I helped to increase her understanding of 
the one Great Light. 

The morning of my execution rose clear and cold. 
Some time after the noon hour, two men with axes 
clean cut and sharp approached me. They seemed 
to take no thought of my lady or the pain they were 
to inflict upon her. As for me, I was nothing but a 
tree. I meant nothing to them. I was only an 
encumbrance, a something to be gotten rid of. The 
seats that my lady’s mate had nailed between my 
branches were wrenched out without a thought of 
the love which placed them there. I began to sense 
again that feeling of hate that overpowered me 
when the brute man struck the so-called beast who 
looked at him with eyes of understanding and pity. 
Then it was that I, too, prayed for toleration of 
man and perfect belief and trust in God. 

As the axes cut deeper and deeper into my body, 
I looked again and ever again into the home made 
so dear to me. There in the center of the room, 
seemingly alone, stood my beloved lady. Her head 
was raised as if in prayer. I knew that she, too, 
was asking for strength and courage. I asked that 
she might not hear me when I fell. That I might 


76 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


carry with me for all eternity the memory of the 
transfiguration that glowed, as with some unseen 
power, in and about her. 

I felt myself quiver. A sense of falling filled my 
whole being with the ever-present desire, knowledge 
and need of the abiding love of God. I knew that 
He was there, for a strength outside, yet within 
myself, supported and encouraged me. One more 
bite of the axe, and I crashed to the earth. But 
what of this new birth, this continuity or uninter¬ 
rupted connection of unbroken life? This vibrant, 
living, breathing entity revealed to me by the cut¬ 
ting off of my physical counterpart? Here I was, 
exactly where I formerly stood . But more radiant, 
more alive than before . 

Again, but with a clearer vision, I looked within 
the room that I had just a moment before viewed, 
as I supposed, for the last time. Then through 
spiritual vision I saw the face of her so dear to me. 
It was the same, and yet changed. Now I saw her 
as she really was. The real, enduring body spiritual 
and the soul shining through as never seen by me 
before. Then I understood the meaning of the 
change that had come to me “ in the twinkling of 
an eye.” I was still “ the tree of life ” and, thank 
God, my leaves were for the healing of the nations. 

I understood that the complete throwing aside or 
the laying down of the physical had not changed 


77 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


me, the individual animating entity. I was the 
same as before, plus this new experience called 
Death , and re-clothed in my enduring , eternal and 
everlasting body spiritual. Knowing this, I had 
faith to believe that sometime she, too, with vision 
unclouded, would see her loved ones. 

How I wished that she might behold them as 
they appeared now to my unfolded sight. The mate 
of the robin who was left alone, still clinging to my 
broken branches, was crying for the more vibrant, 
living bird who was singing in my real, my spiritual 
branches. Singing to her of the wonderful, beauti¬ 
ful country which is the beginning of the real life . 
That he was there and awaiting her. 

After dark, my lady crept out to the broken parts 
of me that lay bleeding at her feet. With all my 
efforts I could not open her spiritual sight to the 
reality of my actual being. She touched me with 
a touch made sacred by her love. I heard her say: 
“ I must find the limb from which my baby swung. 
It must not be cut or burned.” 

As she stooped to pull it out from under my many 
branches, a sob shook her. For there, hidden in 
the hollow of my bent limb, was her baby’s Teddy 
Bear, just as the little one had left him. 

In memory again I heard his dear voice say: 
“ I’se tired, Teddy, and so is ’oo. You must go to 
sleep.” 


78 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


“God’s mercy endureth forever,” I whispered, 
and seeing what I did, I quickly added: “ And my 
leaves are for the healing of the nations.” For 
there, in the crook of one of Teddy’s arms, was a 
bird’s nest. The finding of this tiny home in the 
loving embrace of Teddy brought comfort to the 
aching heart of my lady. Sitting there, apparently 
alone, but not alone, on one of my broken branches, 
with the toy of her baby clasped in her arms, I and 
the dear ones heard her communing with the ever¬ 
present help of all in times of trouble. She asked 
for comfort and aid in this time of her great need. 
With hands that treembled as she touched me, she 
told me how she would have to burn me to keep her 
warm. How it would hurt her to be the one to do 
this. To know that through her hands, stick by 
stick, I would entirely leave her. 

I tried to tell her that substance existed only 
spiritually. That matter was universal property, 
acted upon by intelligence to represent some idea 
and body forth God’s created things for some pur¬ 
pose known to Him. But she was blind and deaf 
to the spiritual. Blind to that which interpene¬ 
trated the physical, which seemed to be the real. 
Tenderly taking my twisted limb, she left me, 
dragging it slowly toward the house. 

Near the close of the Winter her strength grew 
less. From my place outside, I watched her physi- 


79 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 

cal drop away. The spiritual body lighted by the 
soul within glowed through and dimmed the feeble 
materiality without. 

Then came a night when loving hearts and tender 
hands soothed and comforted her. I heard some 
friend say, as she placed a bit of me on the fire: 
“ This is the last stick from the tree she loved so 
well.” 

I, who watched from without, and from within, 
was glad of this. Glad, too, of the presence of her 
loved ones. Never once did they fail to be near 
her. Oh, the love and longing their faces expressed 
as they waited her coming. Neither did I, the real 
tree, cease to be ready to wave her a welcome when 
her physical flame had burned out to the very socket 
of her materiality. Sparks from my old body flew 
faster and faster up and out of the chimney where, 
in the days gone by, I had wondered if I should go. 

How well I timed my complete physical exit with 
that of hers. I, the living tree, heard the friends 
say: “ Her breath is growing shorter.” I said: “ So 
is mine — that part, if any, that still remains in my 
broken instrument.” 

I looked within the room that would hold her 
only for a moment longer. The spiritual body was 
releasing itself from the terrestrial. The arms of 
her loved ones were stretched to take her. With a 
cry of joy, the last spark from my earthly tree flew 


80 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TREE 


up and out into the great whole from whence they 
came. But I, quivering with life and love, was also 
waiting to greet her. 

For the first time since the great change came to 
me did I feel free. Up to now I had felt an attrac¬ 
tion to my physical body because of its need to her. 
But now we were both free from earthly conditions. 
Whereas before she saw as through a glass darkly, 
but now face to face with the loved ones and me, 
there in this condition of enduring life, in the city 
eternal in the heavens. For “ In the midst of the 
street of it and on either side of the river, was there 
the tree of life. . . . And the leaves of the tree were 
for the healing of the nations.” 

“ Beloved are they that do His commandments , 
that they may have the right to the tree of life, and 
may enter in through the gates to the city.” 


81 


































» 





















































. 





















































♦ 









































































Km 

m 

. 
















' ' . . I i 































































0 017 052 241 2 












































